Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iMac27 2013 very slow. Is dual boot on SSD a solution?
- Thread starter Domdel44
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
With an 8yr old HDD, performance slow-down is not surprising. Also it depends if progressive OS upgrades have been added to the original rather than 'clean-installs'.
The installation of a 500GB SSD plus a clean-install of an OS (I would advise High-Sierra over Catalina) will make your iMac perform better than it did when new!
The installation of a 500GB SSD plus a clean-install of an OS (I would advise High-Sierra over Catalina) will make your iMac perform better than it did when new!
Thanks for your advice. Would you consider an external SSD on thunderbolt or on Usb3? Any SSD device advice ? Why are you considering high sierra rather than Catalina?
You can install any model-compatible version of macOS to an external SSD. It will be better than running the internal, spinner hard drive.
Check (research) the third-party applications you use now for compatibility with Catalina. If there aren't any issues then give it a shot. Best to be as up-to-date as possible.
For a USB 3 connection a standard 2.5" SSD will suffice. I don't have any purchasing advice.
Check (research) the third-party applications you use now for compatibility with Catalina. If there aren't any issues then give it a shot. Best to be as up-to-date as possible.
For a USB 3 connection a standard 2.5" SSD will suffice. I don't have any purchasing advice.
I would guess an external SSD on thunderbolt would be the way to go. As for SSD's, Crucial and Samsung usually get good press. I've used both but installed in place of the original HDD.
If you still have and use some 32bit apps, they are no longer supported under Catalina. Good link HERE.
Getting a SSD on your iMac, even if external, would make it feel like a totally different machine. I highly recommend.
Also, you might get some replies saying not to bother adding a SSD or doing anything to such an old device, but I think it is silly to spend $2000+ on a new Mac because your HDD of you current Mac is slow, when a small investment $50 (500GB) to $100 (1TB) could get you a few more years out of your machine.
The cheapest option would be a SATA SSD and a USB3 enclosure or USB/SATA adapter cable. While it would be faster to do an internal SSD for HDD swap, the USB SSD would still be a night and day difference from your aging HDD.
You can currently get a 1TB SATA SSD on New Egg for $63 and a 500GB SATA SSD for $40. Those are the cheapest options if money is a factor, so if you want something more name brand, the prices will go up some.
Best Buy has PNY on sale right now, $46 for 500G and $78 for 1TB.
www.bestbuy.com
www.bestbuy.com
USB/SATA adapter cables are around $10, I like and own a few of these because the cable is a little longer:
If you feel more comfortable with an enclosure, they are also around $10.
It doesn't take much skill to set up, and can be done pretty quickly. Just install the OS of choice, and use Apple's Migration Assistant built into MacOS to migrate your apps, files, photos, etc. over to your new drive.
Side Note: It is good to have a BU of your current drive, just general good practice. Also, I would update the internal drive to High Sierra, regardless of what OS you plan on using, this will update the firmware.
If money is an issue, then a USB3 drive is the way to go. You get great speed compared to you old HDD, the "instant" feel of an SSD, and it can happen for the price of a weeks worth of Starbucks.
If you plan on using this SSD for many years, TB/TB2 might be a better choice do to TRIM support which is not available for USB drives on MacOS. Finding TB/TB2 drives is harder than TB3 and much harder than USB. The cheapest way for this is to get a used TB HDD on eBay and swap the SATA HDD for a SATA SSD. Not difficult, but usually the cheapest way to get a TB SSD.
If you got the need for speed, a much more expensive option is TB3 NVMe. Depending on whether the TB3 drive has its own power source or not, this could involve investment in additional equipment to power the drive, such as a TB3 dock.
There is even more complex options, such as striping RAIDs, but I won't get into that unless you are interest.
High Sierra runs great on the Late 2013 iMacs, and is a pretty good choice. It looks modern, while still be compatible with older SW. It no longer gets security updates, but using a third party web browser would cover a lot of that security. Firefox tends to support MacOS long after Apple has given up on it.
Catalina still gets security updates, so if that is important to you, that would be the way to go. If you plan on using your HDD as a bootable BU drive for your external SSD, I wouldn't use Catalina. APFS and HDDs do not work well together. If you are using your old HDD as extra storage or not using it at all, then Catalina would be fine.
Also, you might get some replies saying not to bother adding a SSD or doing anything to such an old device, but I think it is silly to spend $2000+ on a new Mac because your HDD of you current Mac is slow, when a small investment $50 (500GB) to $100 (1TB) could get you a few more years out of your machine.
The cheapest option would be a SATA SSD and a USB3 enclosure or USB/SATA adapter cable. While it would be faster to do an internal SSD for HDD swap, the USB SSD would still be a night and day difference from your aging HDD.
You can currently get a 1TB SATA SSD on New Egg for $63 and a 500GB SATA SSD for $40. Those are the cheapest options if money is a factor, so if you want something more name brand, the prices will go up some.
Best Buy has PNY on sale right now, $46 for 500G and $78 for 1TB.
PNY CS900 500GB Internal SSD SATA SSD7CS900-500-RB - Best Buy
Shop PNY CS900 500GB Internal SSD SATA at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.
PNY CS900 1TB Internal SSD SATA SSD7CS900-1TB-RB - Best Buy
Shop PNY CS900 1TB Internal SSD SATA at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.
USB/SATA adapter cables are around $10, I like and own a few of these because the cable is a little longer:
SABRENT USB 3.0 to SSD / 2.5 Inch SATA I/II/III Hard Drive Adapter (EC-SSHD)
Product Description:Take advantage of the lightening speed of USB 3.0 to quickly transfer files up to 5 Gbps! Connect any 2.5'' Serial ATA (SATA) / SSD or SATA II Hard Drive to your computer through an available USB 3.0 port on your desktop or laptop. Reverse compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1, this...
www.amazon.com
If you feel more comfortable with an enclosure, they are also around $10.
It doesn't take much skill to set up, and can be done pretty quickly. Just install the OS of choice, and use Apple's Migration Assistant built into MacOS to migrate your apps, files, photos, etc. over to your new drive.
Side Note: It is good to have a BU of your current drive, just general good practice. Also, I would update the internal drive to High Sierra, regardless of what OS you plan on using, this will update the firmware.
There is a bunch of options for you:
If money is an issue, then a USB3 drive is the way to go. You get great speed compared to you old HDD, the "instant" feel of an SSD, and it can happen for the price of a weeks worth of Starbucks.
If you plan on using this SSD for many years, TB/TB2 might be a better choice do to TRIM support which is not available for USB drives on MacOS. Finding TB/TB2 drives is harder than TB3 and much harder than USB. The cheapest way for this is to get a used TB HDD on eBay and swap the SATA HDD for a SATA SSD. Not difficult, but usually the cheapest way to get a TB SSD.
If you got the need for speed, a much more expensive option is TB3 NVMe. Depending on whether the TB3 drive has its own power source or not, this could involve investment in additional equipment to power the drive, such as a TB3 dock.
There is even more complex options, such as striping RAIDs, but I won't get into that unless you are interest.
I wouldn't consider Catalina if you are using older, unsupported SW. So it depends on what you are doing with your Mac.
High Sierra runs great on the Late 2013 iMacs, and is a pretty good choice. It looks modern, while still be compatible with older SW. It no longer gets security updates, but using a third party web browser would cover a lot of that security. Firefox tends to support MacOS long after Apple has given up on it.
Catalina still gets security updates, so if that is important to you, that would be the way to go. If you plan on using your HDD as a bootable BU drive for your external SSD, I wouldn't use Catalina. APFS and HDDs do not work well together. If you are using your old HDD as extra storage or not using it at all, then Catalina would be fine.
Using an external SSD can work wonders for one of these machines. I use a base model 2013 27” iMac daily as my primary computer at work (teacher) and run an external 500GB Samsung T7 as its primary boot drive with the internal 1TB hard disk used for time machine and storage. The machine runs like a champ, even under OCLP Monterey.
Any external USB3 SSD would work wonders for you, whether it’s a standard SATA SSD in an enclosure or a little portable external SSD like I use. I’d avoid thunderbolt SSDs just because of the pricing on TB1/2 drives that these machines would need.
Any external USB3 SSD would work wonders for you, whether it’s a standard SATA SSD in an enclosure or a little portable external SSD like I use. I’d avoid thunderbolt SSDs just because of the pricing on TB1/2 drives that these machines would need.
Buy a new one. I don't think computers are meant to live longer than max 10 years due to new technology so you will get into more and more trouble as time goes on. My late 2013 IMac is also getting incredibly slow and runs out of RAM all the time. Consider the IMac 24, the Mac Mini or the Mac Studio. Personally I would recommend one with the Apple M1 chip for the future compatiblity. I haven't concluded but it seems that an IMac with 16 Gb Ram and 1 Tb storage will cost almost as much as the Mac Studio if I can use the 2013 IMac as monitor for i while. That is a question Apple Support hasn't been acbe to answer yet.